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After their
dismissal from the CAF Champions League, league champions, Enyimba of
Aba aim to compensate their fans by winning the Nigeria Premier League
(NPL) Super Four tourney.

The tournament,
which begins today, will be preceded by a meeting of the NPL board
members alongside some seminars and training programmes.

All four teams to participate in this year’s edition of the competition arrived in Ijebu Ode, venue of the tourney, on Monday.

According to the
fixtures released, Kwara United and Kano Pillars will play the opening
game while the league champions; Enyimba will confront Sunshine Stars
of Akure in the day’s other fixture.

Enyimba striker Phillip Auta boasted that he is sure his team will win the Super Four tournament.

Auta noted that
Enyimba is the best team in Nigeria and will surely confirm that after
the competition which comes to an end on Sunday.

“In spite of the
fact that we lost to Zanaco of Zambia in the Confederation Cup, I am so
confident that we are going to justify the confidence reposed in us by
our supporters by winning the Super Four.” After winning the double
last year, the Aba side wants to make history by winning it
consecutively. “We want to win every available trophy this season. We
have won the league, we are playing in the finals of the Federation Cup
and the Super Four will not be an exception”, added Auta.

“Nobody should
judge us with our ouster from the Confederation Cup. It is one of those
things and the loss will even motivate us to win all our matches during
the Super Four tournament. We are ready and other teams should watch
out for us,” Auta said.

For his part,
Babaginda Tukur, Chairman of Kano Pillars, said his team, though
depleted by injury, national assignment among other factors, will give
a good account of themselves at the competition as they will be going
all out to win the trophy and the prize money of five million naira,
which is up for grabs.

“Like every other
team going into a competition, we are in Ijebu Ode with the aim of
winning the trophy. Though some of our key players will be missing in
action, we will do our best” he said.

The club’s hit man,
Ahmed Musa is on assignment with the U-20 national team; the Flying
Eagles. Also ruled out is Solomon Okpako, who is away in Greece for
trials while defender Ablulahimi Hussien has been ruled out due to
injury.

Tough deal

However, former
Warri Wolves handler, Lawrence Akpokona says the Super Four will be
tough as all four teams are capable of taking the trophy home.

“It is not easy to
predict which team will win the tournament. This is because there are
several factors that come into play in this type of competition.

“Most of the teams
will not come with their full squad and some players will be at the
tournament because they are on trials. But all the teams are evenly
matched. So it is going to be very tough to predict who will win. But I
am sure everybody will enjoy the display of good football by all the
players,” added the seasoned coach.

“It is going to be a sort of football festival and any of the four teams can win the competition,” Akpokona concluded.